Please forgive me for my blog's brief Holiday hiatus. I never thought I would call myself a creature of habit but I discover when I get out of the usual routine as Christmas vacation brought, is when I fail to keep in the habit of blog writing.
This week, the curriculum brings us a little early to Jesus' temptation experience in the wilderness as found in Luke 4:1-13. It feels early, at least to me as I associate the temptation account with the beginning of Lent. Although, Lent is only a few weeks away. Anyway, enough rambling about the church calendar.
One of the coolest things that I think happens when we study scripture is when we study a familiar passage again but discover a new insight we hadn't seen before. Upon reading N.T. Wright's commentary of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, he connects the passage to key moments of the Old Testament. I've heard some of these connections made before. For example, he suggests Jesus 40 days in the wilderness represents Israel's 40 yrs. in the wilderness. As well, Jesus being tempted by the devil is compared to Adam and Eve's temptation in the garden. But, if we step back and look at the whole passage I believe there are more O.T. connections to be made. I believe this passage was not only a narrative to show Jesus was ready to begin his ministry to the people of Israel and then, through his apostles, to the entire world, but that Christ is the completion of the covenant that Old Testament Israel left incomplete.
God often seems to call his trusted servants to the wilderness to prepare them for what lies ahead. He did this with Moses, The entire nation of Israel, King David, Elijah and John the Baptist to name a few. Here we see the same happening with Jesus. He has retreated and fasted for 40 days. He is hungry, but unlike the Israelites, he does not complain of hunger or lash out in fear of dying as they did to Moses in the wilderness.
God called Jesus to the wilderness to prepare Him for ministry. I'm sure the thought crossed Jesus' mind, "How do I reach them? How do I bring them to my Father?" He had the power of being God fully within him yet able to relate to our human condition by choosing to limit himself to the flesh. We see Satan tempt Jesus' humanness with the notion of needing to put himself first. Notice Satan's tactic of testing Jesus' authenticity. Satan questions his very identity by phrasing his challenges "If you are the Son of God" at the beginning of every temptation. First Satan tempts Jesus' flesh. Satan tempts Jesus to use his supernatural ability to produce bread out of the rocks. This reminds us of God giving the Israelites bread from heaven and water from a rock. Satan isn't tempting Jesus with hunger as much as He is questioning Jesus' trust in Abba Father's ability to provide for His Son's needs. This was the failure of Adam and Eve when Satan tempted them. Satan played on their human desire to think they could be self sufficient and that God was keeping something from them, an all knowing knowledge they thought they deserved. The question isn't whether Jesus is capable of turning the rock into bread. It's weather he should or not in order to meet his own needs. We can not relate to the temptation to turn rocks into bread, but we can relate to the temptation to "look out for #1." Thus we can relate to Adam and Eve when they gave into the Devil's temptation by taking fruit from the forbidden tree. To summarize Bruce Larson's thoughts, Satan's strategy is not to get us to an unbelief of God, but a lack of trusting God for what is best for us. (Communicator's Commentary, Luke, N.T. - Volume 3, pg. 84)
Next we see Satan tempting Jesus with power and success. He takes Jesus to a "high place" where he could get a perspective on all the great kingdoms of the world. Of course, at that time, the great power in the world was the Roman Empire. Perhaps Jesus could even see the Tyrant Tiberius plotting his next calculated political scheme to gain more power and control and how it would cause harm to the common people whom his heart broke for. Satan claimed authority over these kingdoms. Did Jesus's heart break for Tiberius in hopes he would change his ways and repent from his political scheming? I'm sure it did. What about Kingdoms to come? Did Satan flash the kingdom that would become the United States before Jesus eyes and offer him control of it? (Just something to think about)
All Jesus had to do was worship Satan and he would have control. Is this any different than the temptation of Israel in the Old Testament when they came to Samuel and said we want a King? (See I Samuel 8) Israel wanted power, success and a kingdom like other nations around them had. They could not simply live in covenant with God. They could not handle the idea of theocracy. And so we have this history of the Kings of Israel which for a time seemed to work under Saul, David and Solomon. Of course, these three were not without their flaws. But after them, the Royal line of God's chosen people literally and figuratively went to Hell in a hand basket. There were a few exceptions, but Israel giving into the temptation of power and success got them nowhere closer to the "kingdom" they desired. They worshipped other Gods. They strayed from the covenant. Satan is tempting Jesus to do the same thing. It's as if Satan is whispering in Jesus ear "Does it really matter how you get them to follow you as long as they follow you? Who cares about the means as long as in the end, they are following your way." Again, we will never be tempted with kingdoms as Satan tempted Jesus but how often are we tempted to compromise our values thinking that the ends will justify the means?
Finally, Satan tempts Jesus with his ability to make a spectacle of himself. Satan is getting frustrated and desperate. He tempts Jesus to get the people to follow him by showing them a miraculous sign of Jesus's power and God's protection by throwing himself off from the highest point of the Temple in front of everyone. Then we see Satan make his most conniving move yet. He uses God's word to reinforce his temptation. To this point, Jesus has responded to Satan's temptations by quoting the Torah, more specifically Deuteronomy. He has used his sword, the Word of God, to resist temptation. But Satan twists the words of Psalm 91 to justify his temptation. Satan, in essence is saying "God will not allow any harm to come to you so jump off the Temple and show everyone how powerful you really are." We repeatedly see in the Old Testament, the people looking for a "sign" and God promising them a "sign." So Satan is saying, give them what they want, what they have wanted for so many years, give them a sign that you are the Messiah. Jesus once again quotes Deuteronomy and says "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
I believe Christ's response was enough for Satan to know at this point his temptations were futile and reason for him to wait until there was another "opportune time." This is because Jesus had shown his resolve to Satan by making it clear to him there was no need fora spectacle. Christ did not need to give them an unneeded miracle or sign (notice I said unneeded, because miracles and signs come in the context of need). Why? Because Jesus knew "I am the sign." Jesus is the sign that God had promised in the O. T.. Jesus had passed the test and overcame the flesh and Satan knew it. Jesus had completed his preparation having a full understanding that He was the sign, the Messiah, the Son of God. He knew it and so did Satan. All Satan could do was walk away and look for another opportunity later.
It is no coincidence that this experience and these temptations so correlate with the Old Testament. I believe when a Jewish person would read this they would have reason to say "This passage shows that Jesus did what our Forefathers could not." Where Israel failed in history, Jesus did not. Jesus is the fulfillment of all God has promised. His time in the wilderness confirms that.
As you talk with young people about this scripture, my challenge is this: Help them to think about who they really trust. Do they trust themselves and only themselves to care and provide for them or do they see evidence in their lives of how God truly provides? Do they think success comes by cutting corners or do they trust that God has a plan for them they are called to patiently follow? Do they believe Jesus is the Messiah or are they waiting for some sign of good fortune when the sign is right there in front of them? How about you? Who do you trust? Do you want your kids to trust him? Then seek to model a trusting faith for them and I challenge you to wrestle with these questions as well.
